Sony’s MLB: The Show has always played an incredible game of baseball. One persistent complaint is the difficulty of hitting the ball. Sony Computer Entertainment’s San Diego Studio understands. In its latest developer blog, it explains how it will help. It’s adding a beginner mode that will coach up new batters by teaching them the basics. The mode works on plate discipline, timing and pitch recognition. The game’s adaptive A.I. advances at the rate you do, and won’t move on until you’re ready.

The computer starts off feeding you fastballs right down the middle of the plate. Once you’ve learned to handle that, it mixes in offspeed stuff. Then, it will begin throwing pitches to a certain location. At every step, players are learning more about the art of hitting.

Another new addition is the Push/Pull Trajectories Engine. All the game’s hitters fall into one of these categories: Push, Pull, Balanced, Extreme Push or Extreme Pull. Whether controlled by the computer or a human, players will hit more balls to their preferred side of the field.

Overall, Sony San Diego has increased the timing window for hitting on all difficulty settings. Whether you’re a rookie or a hardened veteran, this is going to make the game more offensive minded. As an example, Sony says someone that batted .220 on All-Star level should now expect to bat around .260. Designers have made the necessary tweaks in other areas of the difficulty setting. They don’t want light-hitting shortstops batting .500 with 130 RBIs.

Social media is a big part of the game in real life, and has shown up in the latest NBA and football products. Twitter has come to MLB The Show also. All approved and official Twitter handles for Major League Baseball stars appear in the game. The “MLB on Twitter” option appears in the Main Menu. You’ll be able to cycle through all 30 teams and their players’ approved Twitter pages. By clicking on a player, you can see all his tweets. Twitter is also accessible from each MLB player card. The game will update the feature throughout the season as new athletes sign up to get their tweet on.

MLB 13: The Show hits stores March 5, 2013 on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.